


Star Wars Episode ¯\_(ツ)_/¯: The Armrest Wars

by moonpeace (plumesvertes)



Category: Aveyond
Genre: Bickering, F/M, Forgive me for that title, Modern AU, Rated T for Terrible role models of how to show affection and how to act at the movies, birthday fic, imagine your otp prompt, references to star wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-04 18:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12173982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumesvertes/pseuds/moonpeace
Summary: Based on this prompt: "A and B are given seats next to each other at the movies. Before they can nope out the seats around them are filled with children. They have to negotiate who gets the armrest for a two hour romcom."Now replace A and B with Mel and Gyendal, and romcom with Star Wars.Birthday gift for Queen_of_Ice101.





	Star Wars Episode ¯\_(ツ)_/¯: The Armrest Wars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Queen_of_Ice101](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_of_Ice101/gifts).



> Happy birthday Miranda! I hope you have a wonderful day - and year! You're my inspiration in this fandom <3 I think I remember you saying you watched a Star Wars movie marathon, but if not then I'm sorry if you understand none of this fic? I tried to make it so you could enjoy it without knowing about the movie, anyway. I really need to stop referencing Star Wars in my Aveyond stuff...
> 
> Also, thanks so much to my friend for writing the prompt, which was too good not to use. If you ever end up reading this here...you know who you are.

In hindsight, Mel should've known the whole plan was a bad idea. 

Edward and Stella had offered to treat her to a special showing of Star Wars on the big screen for her birthday. No big deal, right? They'd invited Te'ijal and Galahad, but somehow Te'ijal had mailed her the wrong ticket, and she'd woken up at 11:00 on her big day to six missed calls and several texts asking where she was, why wasn't she here, did she want to miss the 10:00 movie?

Just once, Mel wished something in her life would go right.

But she'd be damned if she was going to miss out on that movie. It was her birthday, and she didn't intend to let a bad start suck the fun out of the whole day. Besides, Mel was never the type to mind doing things alone. 

At least, she thought she'd be alone.

Mel arrived with enough time to pick the best seat. Slightly left of center, a few rows down from the top, the one she always picked. Even better, the theater was almost empty, so she had a few minutes to put her feet up on the seat in front of her and pop in some headphones before the noisy crowds arrived. 

"Excuse me, could you move your feet please? I need to get through," said a man, and Mel was so zoned out that she didn't notice who he was until he sat down in the seat next to her. 

Oh no. Not him.

Anyone but him. 

He seemed to have the same realization at the same moment as Mel, because they both sprang out of their seats as if jolted by an electric current. But as fate would have it, a large family began to make its way down the aisle, preventing them from dispersing to choose different seats as far away from each other as possible. The stream of people moving through forced them to press awkwardly against each other, which the many rowdy children seemed to find great humor in.

When Mel turned around, she was disappointed but not entirely surprised to find that the family had taken all the seats on either side of them.

"Well, it looks like one of us is going to have to move," she said matter-of-factly. There was no debate: the sky was blue, water was wet, and Mel Darkthrop and Gyendal Ravenfoot were not going to sit next to each other during a two-plus hour movie. 

Gyendal avoided Mel's eyes and looked idly at the preview playing on the screen. "Yes, one of us can move while I stay here."

"Hey, no fair! I sat here first!" Mel crossed her arms, causing a shower of popcorn to spill out of the bag in her hands and onto the head of the person sitting below her. 

"So? I always sit here, and you're the one who suggested moving anyway. You do it," he scowled.

"I always sit here too! It's my birthday, anyway. I shouldn't have to move," Mel rebutted, her voice rising in in pitch.

"I didn't know it was your birthday," Gyendal answered, matching Mel's tone. "And I don't care!"

"Hey you two, shut up and sit down!" called the person below them. Several people across the theater murmured in agreement, one threatening to call the manager, and a few shouting words that might've offended Mel and Gyendal if they weren't so busy being offended by each other's presence.

Mel and Gyendal stood at an impasse for a few more tense moments, neither willing to be the one to give in and move to another aisle, before begrudgingly sitting back down. 

"This is all your fault, you know," Mel murmured.

"No, it's clearly yours," Gyendal bit back. 

"No, yours," Mel whispered nearly inaudibly, not willing to let him have the last word. She was going to have to put her argument with Gyendal aside, though, because the movie was starting. Return of the Jedi was one of Mel's favorite films, and she wasn't about to let Te'ijal's insufferable brother ruin it for her. 

The movie distracted Mel from her undesirable company for awhile, until she got bored about twenty minutes in (the movie was great, but the beginning was undeniably slow) and was brought back to reality by Gyendal's obnoxiously loud chewing. He was shoving handfuls of popcorn into his mouth, making a complete pig of himself, and assaulting the ears of everyone around him. 

"Could you eat any louder?" Mel hissed.

"Shh, m'watching," Gyendal said, pointing at the screen for emphasis. As if Mel was an idiot and didn't know where one's eyes were supposed to be in a movie theater.

"Pssh, yeah, of course you'd be watching extra intently at THIS part." Leia was now clad in a metal bikini, waiting to be rescued from her enslavement to Jabba the Hutt. "The slave Leia scene is so overrated. I bet you imagine every woman you see in that awful getup." 

"I do not." Gyendal turned to glare at her, and turned away just as quickly. It was too dark to tell, but was that a blush on his face?

Pervert.

"Actually, I don't particularly care for this scene either. But unlike SOME people, I came here to watch the movie and not the person sitting next to me!" Gyendal punctuated his sentence with an extra large mouthful of popcorn, which (to Mel's delight) couldn't fit completely in his mouth.

Mel opened her mouth to respond, but anything she said would only validate his argument. She turned back to the movie and responded with loud chewing of her own. Two could play at that game. 

In fact, two could play at that game for a surprisingly long time. The movie was halfway through, Mel was already almost done with her large popcorn, and she wasn't sure she could take another bite. Judging by the decreased frequency of Gyendal's mouthfuls, he was facing the same situation. Not wanting to be the first to quit, she "accidentally" spilled what was left of her bag on Gyendal's lap.

"Sorry," she said, in a tone of voice that was unapologetically unapologetic. 

Gyendal angrily brushed the popcorn off, sending most of it flying into the hair of the guy below them. Mel really owed the man an apology, she supposed, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to look him in the eye once the movie was over. 

"You're not sorry," he grumbled. Mel's only response was to shrug as she sipped (loudly, of course) from her drink. 

However, the petty argument was once again forgotten as the movie sucked her in. Luke had just told Leia that he was her brother, and was about to confront Vader. The plot was finally getting to the good part. Mel sat forward in her seat and gripped the armrest in anticipation of the action to come.

Except when she reached for the armrest, she ended up with a handful of Gyendal's arm instead. She pulled back faster than if she'd put her hand on a hot stove.

"That's my armrest," Mel grunted as she elbowed his arm.

"That's stupid. Everyone knows you use the left armrest," Gyendal said, elbowing back.

They spent several minutes shoving back and forth until Gyendal's elbow missed the mark, causing his hand to shoot straight onto Mel's thigh.

Both of them spent a pregnant pause staring at where Gyendal's hand met Mel's leg, their eyes widening comically, blushes rising to both of their cheeks, before Mel belatedly slapped Gyendal's hand away. "Hands to yourself!" she exclaimed, her voice embarrassingly high in pitch. 

Of course, his hand returned to its place on the armrest. But Mel wasn't about to be denied her rightful space, so she planted her hand on top of his in the hope that he'd move away.

He didn't. 

Neither of them were willing to give the other the satisfaction of moving. At least, that's what they'd told themselves at the time. They'd later deny noticing that the other armrests were perfectly available.

They stayed that way for several minutes. At the scene where Vader removed his mask, Mel involuntarily tensed her hand - something about seeing the villain you'd grown to hate so vulnerable unsettled her every time - and her smaller fingers slipped between the cracks in Gyendal's. But this time, she didn't pull away immediately. It was almost reluctant, the way she unlaced her hand from his and returned it to her lap.

When Han and Leia kissed after the final battle, Mel made sure to avoid the armrest entirely. She didn't even look in that direction. She made a point to face the other way, actually, because sappy romance scenes were dumb and so was Gyendal.

Then, the movie was finally over. The telltale credits music blared over the speakers and the lights came back to life. People were already starting to get up and leave, but Mel was rooted to her seat in shock. 

"I cannot believe," she said to no one in particular, "that they replaced the original footage of Vader's Force ghost with young Anakin. I know they changed a lot in the remastered version, but really, right at the end? Is nothing sacred?" 

"They can't NOT use young Anakin," replied Gyendal. Of course he had to contradict her. "The original movie used some random old guy. Replacing him with young Anakin creates continuity across the movies, and emphasizes how Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker are different people."

"Yeah, but now they tarnished the original trilogy with the prequels!"

"I should've known you'd be one of those sheep who can't see the value in the prequels," Gyendal sniffed.

"Well, I should've known you'd have no taste," Mel scoffed. "And I don't even know why I'm discussing my favorite movie with someone who hates me," she added, more to herself than anything. 

"I don't hate you, Mel." 

Mel turned to face him, shocked by both the words and the unexpected honesty in them.

"I mean, you're the most annoying person I've ever encountered, and I don't know how my sister puts up with you, and you have no sense politically, but I don't...hate you," he finished lamely.

"Um," Mel faltered. "I don't hate you, too." 

"You two need to get a room already," shouted a voice from the bottom of the stairs. It was the guy she'd spilled popcorn on, several times.

"Shut up," they shouted back, almost in unison. 

In hindsight, Mel supposed they deserved that comment, with all they'd put him through. But then again, in hindsight, she supposed he'd been onto something.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry I didn't have time to write more, but I hope you enjoy this fluffy, bicker-y nonsense. Post a review and I'll comment the next riddle!


End file.
